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An Honors Thesis (HONRS 499)
by
Rachel Wynn
Thesis Advisor
Dr. Frank Felsenstein
Ball State University
Muncie, IN
Apri12008
Expected Date of Graduation: May 2008
Abstract:
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In order to create a promotional tool for the project of What Middletown Read at Ball
State University, we have joined our talents to bring together a video to illustrate the importance
of the project, and to explain to those outside the project what important work is being done. To
achieve this, we interviewed members of the researching team and historians to demonstrate the
background aspects of the project and the significance it will hold for historians and all potential
researchers. Ultimately, we hope that this project will offer a positive and informative view of
the project to interested subjects should the team choose to share it in digital form. The video
will also be housed as a part of the local history collection in the Ball State Archives and Special
Collections for public viewing. Alyssa has used her talents honed at Ball State for filming and
editing, as Rachel contributed her visual marketing skills to create the existing look of the video
for distribution in addition scheduling and communication.
Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank our respective advisors, Nancy Carlson and Dr. Frank Felsenstein
for helping the finished version of this project to take shape. We would also like to thank the
following people for offering their time and expertise to be interviewed for this video: Dr. Frank
Felsenstein, Dr. James Connolly, Dr. Maria Staton, Kelly Hacker Jones, and Dr. Bruce
Geelhoed. In addition, we would like to extend our thanks to Trevor Frohberg, Music
Engineering student at Ball State University, for providing the original music found in the video.
Abstract and acknowledgements are a joint collaboration of Alyssa Hartle and Rachel Wynn.
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August 15, 2007
The honors thesis has definitely been on my mind since the moment I received my
acceptance letter for Ball State University. I was thrilled to be accepted to the university and
offered honors status, but the requirements of being a student of the honors college were a bit
frightening at first. Will my classes be more than I can handle? Will I disappoint my professors
and not perform to their expectations? And just what is this thesis that's required for graduation?
It became a dark, brooding figure just waiting for me to reach my senior year, and then it would
crush my hopes of receiving an honors diploma for good. I became very anxious when I would
hear students discussing what their theses would be in our underclassmen years. How did they
know what they wanted to do? I had no clue whatsoever. I did some soul-searching and I always
seemed to settle on a creative project, like photography. I have always loved taking photographs,
and it seemed much superior to another extensive research project. But just as my majors and my
interests throughout college were ever-changing, so was my thesis project.
September 23, 2007
Toward my upperclassmen years, I realized that I actually enjoyed the creative aspects of
my major, so why not use the honors thesis as an opportunity to create another visual marketing
tool? In a recent class, a team of about 15 students and myself coordinated a promotional video
and brochure for the International Studies program at Ball State and I found it to be very
rewarding. We laid out a plan of what we envisioned a video for this program to look like. We
brainstormed the images that we wanted to associate with the program, like fun and intelligent
and world-travelled. It's important to have an overarching strategic plan for the end product
before you even begin. In terms of marketing, the video should portray the image ofthe subject
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that you think will attract your target audience. Videos on almost every subject have to involve
some basic parts such as background information and interviews, but if we can present it in a
way that will strike high school seniors as interesting and fun, it would be much more successful.
I felt like I could apply these same principles to another project that I thought was worthy of
endorsing, and also apply more basic business skills to organizing information, interview
schedules and people.
October 19, 2007
Now that it's getting down to crunch time (and not being capable of producing a video by
myself), it's time to actually put this plan into action. I have several good friends that happen to
be Tele-Communications majors and one of them happens to be an honors student! I have asked
Alyssa if she would like to team up with me for an honors theses and she is all for it! Frankly, in
the last video that I was involved in, I was not overly happy with the camera work and editing of
our cameraman. I know that Alyssa is creative and a really good worker, so I feel really good
about the project we could put together. My part ofthe thesis is essentially planning and
organization of the image portrayed through the video and the coordination of all parts. I will
also be the interviewer, co-scriptwriter, possible voice-over talent, and help to find a way of
shooting that will produce our desired image. Alyssa will bring her far superior knowledge of all
things having to do with production and will bring the image to life.
In one of my jobs here at Ball State, I have been involved in a project called What
Middletown Read. Several years ago, ledgers dating from the 1880' s to the 1900's documenting
library patronage and reading selections were found preserved in the current Carnegie Public
Library in downtown Muncie. Since this discovery, Dr. Frank Felsenstein has led a team to
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document digitally the information found in these ledgers. When all the information is compiled
into an extensive database, it will be possible to see "what Middletown read" and draw important
cultural and historical conclusions about the people in Muncie at that time. Doing this research
(as I know from personal experience) takes a lot of time, hard work and funding. My thought
was that any attention that could be brought to the project, even in a humble honors thesis, would
be helpful in finishing the project and making this information accessible to the pUblic.
November 28,2007
Alyssa and I had our first official meeting with Dr. Felsenstein today. We also just had
our meeting with Dr. Joanne Edmonds ofthe honors college to approve the project. I'm very
relieved that the honors college and those working on the project seem to think that it is a good
idea. My only fear is that there is more information on the project than we can realistically
include. Alyssa and I have agreed that, taking into account the subject matter, images available
and our limited capabilities, a ten minute video is the most that we can produce. We will attempt
to include all information that interested parties would wish to know about the project. To
achieve this, I think some background information will have to be conveyed through
conversational interviews, as we cannot include all history and information in our script. The
script will also have to be flexible until we see what kind of interviews we come away with. But
I'm excited that our project is in the beginning stages, and I think Alyssa and I will be able to
produce something that the people on the project will be proud of.
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January 10, 2008
Alyssa, not being as familiar with the project as I am, came to visit me in the Archives
today where I was scanning some pages from the transaction ledgers. I showed Alyssa the
transaction ledgers, accession catalogs, and book borrowers register, and we discussed what kind
of visuals we will be able to use in the video. As beautiful as old books are, they are not
explosively entertaining on screen. We also discussed making a schedule for our project, which
will probably be the hardest part of this project for me. College students are not really trained to
work on their own schedules and considering the final projects we will both have coming up in
April and May, we need to get a lot of the background research and interviews finished as soon
as possible. My assignment for next week is to compile the list of interviews and the things that I
want included in the video. Alyssa's assignment is to brainstorm creative ways to enhance the
images we have available for the video and creative ways of making the video more visually
interesting.
January 28, 2008
One of my major roles in this project is to attempt to keep it moving at a relatively quick
pace, to communicate with all those we need to be involved, to work with people's schedules and
to relay any information to the participants that will make the process run more smoothly. When
asking for interviews and setting up meeting times, I try to be as courteous and flexible as
possible. I have informed my supervisor at work that I may need to take a few afternoons off this
semester. I realize that my schedule is going to be one of the hardest to work around this
summer, as I am out of town every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for my internship. Therefore
I will have to offer the participants the times that I have available, and if these do not work I will
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take the time off and make it up whenever possible. Being a super-senior in my last semester at
college does not help either, so Alyssa and I are hoping to be through with interviews by midMarch so that we can focus on editing, music and other details toward the end of the semester
when we are being bombarded by other projects. The original purpose of this entry was to work
out the information that I am going to relay to the interviewees before our filming starts so that
we can have as little technical and editing problems as possible. The interviewees need to know
to:
1) Look at me instead of the camera, as we do not want them looking straight ahead in the
video
2) Try to restate the question briefly in the answer so that interview excerpts can stand alone
3) Not talk to me directly, as the interviewer will not be featured in the video
4) Keep answers somewhat brief as, in editing, Alyssa will be splicing different interviews
together for multiple opinions
We also need to make sure that we are handling any paperwork (all ofthe participants will need
to sign a sheet that Alyssa will acquire, saying that we can use their interview for the film) or
other details while setting up, because we do not want to take up any more of our interviewee's
time than necessary.
February 1,2008
I have created a rough list of the interview questions that I would like to ask our
interviewees. This list will, of course, be changed slightly for each person, as they have different
roles and different perspectives of the project and its importance:
Interview Questions
What is the most interesting thing about the project to you?
How did you get involved in the project?
How is the information found from the project going to be used?
How is information found to compile a list of patrons?
Why is it important to look at what a section ofthe population read?
What does the selection of particular books tell you about a culture or time period?
What are the specifics of how the information is being stored?
Tell us about the different journals that were found and their importance.
How will it eventually be available to the public for search?
Why is it important to preserve these documents digitally?
I have contacted the following people to be a part of our film:
Dr. Frank Felsenstein
Dr. Jim Connolly
Kelly Hacker-Jones
Abbie Hum
Stephanie Mathis
Maria Staton
Manager of Muncie Public Library
MarenRead
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Some of these listed are now living too far away to participate in our project, but we have quite a
few who have agreed to be part of the process and I hope to invite more to share with us further
down the line!
February 6, 2008
Yesterday, we filmed our first round of interviews, so we are really on a roll now! We
filmed Dr. Felsenstein first in his office in RB and then Kelly Jones in the library. Dr. Felsenstein
had some qualms about us filming in his office; understandably so, because he is a busy
professor and he was unsure of how long we would take setting up in his office and if the space
would work. Alyssa and I agreed however, that his office would be better, as we are trying to
include a visual element of books and learning into each of the shots. Many ofthe professors'
offices are really visually interesting, with years of books and work on display. We thought this
was an ideal setting so we tried to inconvenience Dr. F as little as possible and allow him to
continue his work without interruption while we were setting up. The space was small, however,
and we did come across a few setbacks. I helped as best I could to help Alyssa arrange the
lighting, the camera and Dr. F. Alyssa is, of course, in charge of setting up the shot where she
wants it, as she has a lot more experience in that department than me. I will be surprised when I
see the interview on film.
Kelly's interview was fun, because we got to try out a new location that Alyssa had
scouted out. I think the angle of Kelly against the bookshelves is going to be a neat addition to
the shot. Some slight problems came up during the filming process, like the bells outside of Dr.
F's office ringing during one of his answers. We inevitably had to redo this answer so this was
not an ideal situation. Dr. F and Kelly also had a few moments when they would talk directly to
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me, as a researcher. This is not a big deal, as it was usually not to an extent that we cannot edit
out. It seems that all kinds of people become a little nervous in front of a camera and hence, the
interviews are never going to be perfect. It's a good thing that Alyssa is so practiced at editing
and post-production!
February 8, 2008
One more interview down! As this was only our second day of interviewing, we were still
a little nervous. To add to this, Alyssa had forgotten the film at home by mistake. Luckily, we
noticed this before Maria arrived and were able to call a wonderful friend to bring it to us before
we started. The people at the Genealogy Center were very accommodating and let us film in a
lovely spot by the fireplace. I think it will turn out to be a good shot. Maria was great to
interview. She's really excited by the process, even after working on it for years now! She gave
examples of how the database could be a personal tool to find out about things you are interested
in, or even family members from Muncie. I altered the usual questions a little bit, as Maria has
more knowledge ofthe accession catalog and what kinds of book were being checked out at the
time. Alyssa and I think these will be good points to include, because tying specific literature to
the time will make it easier to relate to. Since the genealogy center is a public place, and a busy
one, we did have some problems with noise. Some patrons were requiring some assistance, and
we had to start and stop some interview questions a few times. I hope that it was not too irritating
for Maria to have to wait until we thought it was quiet enough.
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February 18,2008
I am getting a little nervous for the project to be moving along, as it has been awhile
since we have filmed an interview. Scheduling conflicts are arising at every turn, so hopefully
we can get things rolling again soon!
February 31, 2008
A few days ago, we finally got to another interview. We interviewed Dr. Connolly a few
days ago and everything went really well. Alyssa had a run-in with a parking garage meter and
was delayed a little while. This is just something that's going to happen with any meeting you
schedule and I tried to make sure Dr. Connolly was not upset by it. He was very nice about it,
though, and had some good answers for us on the importance ofthe project. Dr. Connolly's role
in the project is somewhat more technical and managerial than some ofthe researchers, so the
details ofthe ledgers and entry work were not his forte. I tried to ask him more open-ended
questions on how historians would be able to use this information and what the findings at this
particular time period tell us about the culture. Alyssa was sick today, but I'm glad she braved it
and came in so that we are one interview closer to finalizing our project.
March 30, 2008
A few days ago, we filmed our last interview! I had attempted to get in touch with the
librarian at Muncie Public on more than one occasion and am sorry not to have her interview, but
Alyssa assures me that we will have plenty of information to more than fill the time limit we had
set. Our last interview then was with Dr. Bruce Geelhoed. Dr. Geelhoed is the chair of the
history department at Ball State and the former Director of Middletown Studies. Alyssa and I had
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wanted to get a historian's perspective on the time period and the importance of the project, and
Dr. Geelhoed was recommended to me by many of the WMR team. With each interview, it was
difficult to know beforehand how much the interviewee knew about different aspects of the
project. I realized that Dr. Geelhoed was far removed from the project, as he has been away from
Middletown Studies for quite some time. From him, we were looking for an overall view of the
time period, but as I am coming to realize, and as Maria stated in her interview, there is a lot that
we don't know about the small details of everyday life in this period. That's part of why this
project is so important, because we can get a glimpse into how people were receiving their
information and their entertainment.
Dr. Geelhoed did have good insights on why Muncie was a perfect place for this
information to be found. It is just one more level of study since the Lynds came here in the 1920s
and Muncie, representing a typical American small town, is a great place from which to
extrapolate data and deduce the way oflife for many people across the country. Dr. Geelhoed,
being the chair of the department, is a very busy man, but took as much time as he liked because
he wanted Alyssa and I to understand the gravity ofthis study and the Lynds' studies and the
importance of Middletown. Some of the interview was spent talking directly to us about
information he thought we should have for our project. I think we have a great chair of the
history department here at Ball State and he must be a very enjoyable professor.
April 14, 2008
Last night, Alyssa and I viewed a rough editing ofthe video. It's coming along pretty
welL I have been in contact with our musician, and as soon as Alyssa finishes the rough cut, it
will be exciting for him to start to create music for our project! Alyssa and I have discussed it,
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and we both feel that the commonly used fast-paced music of infonnational videos will not work
in this case. I would like to have a somewhat classical feel to the music and I think an
instrumental music score would add a lot to our visuals. We have added some photos from the
time period, acquired through the Ball State Archives and Special Collections, and I do not want
the music to feel anachronistic against this setting. Trevor is an intelligent and professional
musician, and I feel that he will be able to create the right mood for us. Alyssa, having more
technical knowledge than me, needs me to convey to Trevor that the music must swell and ebb in
certain portions of the video, especially toward the introduction and conclusion. I can start to see
the video coming together and I think it is going to be really exciting.
April 23, 2008
Throughout the semester, I have not reflected very much in my journals about the actual
project. First, I will discuss my history with the project. Two years ago, I was approached by my
HNRS 390 professor, Dr. Felsenstein, asking if I would be interested in interviewing for a
research position on a project he was working with. He approached me and a fellow classmate,
Stephanie, because we had completed assignments early and relatively well in his colloquium
discussing William Shakespeare's works, and he thought we would be reliable and competent
workers. Stephanie and I began doing research working with the Book Borrower's Register
(BBR).
This was one of the larger ledgers that was found in the attic of the current Carnegie
Library in downtown Muncie. This ledger is important because it noted down the patron number,
name, address and name and address of guarantor. A guarantor was an existing patron that
signed with the applying patron, reaffinning for the library that he or she was an upstanding
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citizen. Stephanie and I would separate portions of the years that we were working on and do
research separately, though we usually traveled together to the downtown Genealogy Center,
which housed some of the research material we would need. We would begin by taking down the
names and addresses of the patron from the BBR and search for them in the city directory from
the same year. If the patron name could be clarified (sometimes the handwriting left a lot to be
desired) or reaffirmed, we would move on to finding more information. With Ancestry.com, we
would search for the patron name once again, and take down information such as gender, race,
marital status and occupation. This kind of information is important to collect, because
eventually, this can be applied to sociological questions. Historians will be able to examine
readership through gender, for example.
When we had gathered all of our information, time was then spent back at the
Middletown Studies office, where we would input all of the data into the Access database created
for us. Eventually, this database can be cross-reference with other aspects of the project, like the
listing of book titles from the accession catalog, or the transactions recorded in the multiple
transaction ledgers. When searching for a certain patron, you can see all the books that they have
checked out. If searching for a particular book, you can view how many times it was checked out
and by whom. This kind of information is incredible. The research can be applied to multiple
areas of study and can tell us a lot about the ideas that were being shared in a small town at the
turn of the century. Like a lot of the team relayed in their interviews, we do not know a lot about
the everyday thoughts and actions of the people in this time period.
I think this project can give us a glimpse into what was going on in Muncie, and by
comparison, many small towns across America, in this time. As many of the interviewees
related, the information can be used by several groups of people. Individual genealogists can
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research their family's literary past in Muncie, sociological historians can research what social
groups were frequenting the library and the kinds of ideas they were reading about. They can
also look at readership by race, by color, by immigrant communities, by gender, by income, by
vocation, etc. The opportunities for insight from the database that will be established is great. I
hope that this project will soon be available to the masses, as it is the first project of its kind and
will be immensely valuable. Few studies have been done where this kind of historical
information was available, and what makes this project even more rare, is that such a volume of
information was found. It is truly one of a kind and I can't wait to see the end result!
April 27, 2008
Alyssa and I are finalizing many details of the video today. This morning, we printed out
the inserts for the DVD cases and the labels for the DVDs themselves. Today we will be adding
the final music and burning all of the DVDs. The final details entailed in this project are time
consuming and have had us incurring a bit of a financial cost as well. We can only provide as
many copies ofthe DVDs as are completely necessary as we are limited by these financial costs.
Headaches arise when technology does not operate at the level that you think it should. We had
many difficulties with printing this morning, and from a packet oflabel paper, were just able to
come up with enough satisfactory copies to include when turning in our project. Alyssa has
incurred many technical difficulties, and the difficulties continue today with the programs used
to create the video. The music has now been added and it adds a lot to the video. The music is
accented at points when important new subjects are coming up, and the music builds toward a
high point when he video starts wrapping up. We are very pleased with it. We are still
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encountering some small errors that will need to be fixed before we can bum the DVDs later
today.
April 27, 2008 (continued)
Copies ofthe DVD have now been burned and it is really exciting to have this project
finished and ready to hand in! I hope that the team of What Middletown read will be pleased
with it. Alyssa and I put a lot of work into the project and it is gratifying to see the final product.
Alyssa and I will both be graduating in less than a week and I am glad that we got to do this
project together. Alyssa is very talented and I think we produced something pretty interesting
that will be a benefit to the project. The provider of our music, Trevor Frohberg, also happens to
be the brother of my boyfriend, Andy, so this project has been a personal one and ajoy for me to
work on. We will be handing in our final video shortly, and ifthe team of What Middletown
Read feels fit to use it in any fonn, we will be extremely flattered. If not, anyone interested can
view it in the Ball State Archives and Special Collections and we will always be glad that we got
the opportunity to produce it. I would like to again thank everyone who participated. I wish the
team well and hope that the project will be well received and widely utilized when it becomes
publicly available in 201O!
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